Holiday Jar

I love baby food jar, they are cute. Just the right side to keep beads and things in there. Here's how I covered the lid with a holiday theme.

1. Clean the lid and roll out a sheet of clay, White or Red.

2. I am using a mushroom that I made, also cut a piece of wire about 3", curl up one end. The wire will hold the mushroom in place.

3. Put the lid on clay and cut around it, like so.

4. Poke the wire through the clay before covering the lid, smooth the top and side, make sure there is no air bubble.

5. With Gleen clay, roll out small balls, make them into leaf shape, flatten slightly. With needle tool, draw several veins on the leaf. Stick the leaves around the lid.

6. With White & Red clay, make a twisted snake. Roll out tiny balls, stick 3 of then on to each leaf. Now you have holy leavf with berries. Isn't it cute?

7. Squeeze enough liquid clay on the top of the lid, sprinkle with glitter. I used the thing called Crystal dust. It is the tiny glass flake used by the florist. Squeeze a drop of liquid clay near the wire, put the mushroom through the wire. Liquid clay and wire will help stable the mushroom. Bake and enjoy.

Here are some more ideas.

Making of the Snowman

I made these snowman beads a few years back. They are so cute for the festive earrings. They are about 1" tall. Don't wait till Christmas Eve when you decide to make them. I am so good this year, I even finished making my Christmas cards. Hum... may be I will show you how I draw and paint my card later. It was fun, but let's start with these Snowman.

1. Clean your Pasta machine and roll out a sheet of white clay. I used the small round Kemper tools to cut out 3 different size pieces. Roll them into balls and stack them together.

2. With small round cutter, make 2 small balls from Red clay. Flatten one to make bottom of the hat, flatten the other one lightly to make the top.

3. Make 3 thin snakes from Red, Green and Gold clay, twisted them together, roll into tiny, tiny rope. Wrap a piece around the hat.

4. Make 2 small balls from Green clay, stick them on the belly.

5. Roll 2 tiny Brown clay to make eyes, then a tiny piece of Orange to make a nose.

6. Make tiny scarf with a strip of Red, Green and Brown clay. Bake and enjoy.

Fall Color Acorn from Fall Color Clay

Leaves are changing color and I was sitting at my clay table, not sure what to make. I had picked up a few brown acorns from neighbor's yard and want to make some out of clay but the color is so dull. I started mixing some dark-grey color into some orange and it came out really nice. Bad thing is I've never keep tract of my color mixing, just kept adding till I get it right.

1. Roll out a piece of clay into a ball then roll one side till you get a nice cone shape, put texture on it, lightly. Bake for a short time till the surface gets firm. ( I will show you my texture tool and how to make it later)

2. Make a small ball from darker color, flatten it then put it on top of the cone. This will be a cap so we need to texture it. I was using Kemper tool No. K24. Pressing the pointed tip around the cap.

3. Make a small ball to represent stem, bake.

4. White wash the acorn with white acrylic paint that has been dilute with water.

Some ideas: cute earrings with some kinna fall color leaves, or a pin with acorns dangling from it. I might try Rub n' Buff on it. Siver or golden acorn, sound good isn't it?

Cute acorn earrings with copper leaves.

FLOWER EARRINGS
Now that I have a few canes made, I had so much fun coming up with the way to use them. Earrings are fun to make because it is fast and easy and sell well.
1. Cut out 4 slides from leaf cane. You can cut 2 thick one but I like mine puffy.
2. Put a small piece of clay in between 2 leaves, close the edge by pressing it with your fingers.
3. Poke a hole on the top, set aside.
4. Now we are going to make like a head pin with clay. First cut 2 pieces of wire of your choice. I used copper wire. Bend it down like so. Roll a scrap clay into a ball then press the wire in it. Now you can use any color scrap clay or using slides from the cane that is not so perfect. Set them aside. Make 2 more using the color that match the flower cane.
5. Now we are going to make flower. Cut 2 fairly thick slides from flower cane. You can stretch them if they are too small. Cut 1/2 way through the slides. Wrap it around the headpin in a way that it spiral up the wire.
6. Wrap some green color cane around the stem. Bake.
7. Using the clay covered headpins to make the loop on top of each leaf and flower.
8. Put them on ear wire of your choice.
There are so many way to use the cane. Hope you have fun with them.

PINK FLOWER NECKLACE

This is the slide show of how I put my necklace together. I used the flower canes that I made and came up with different variety of beads. Using the scrap or left over to make accents beads, you will get matching beads to help pull the design of the necklace together. I used copper wire to make those small flowers and wrapped the together.

The finished necklace is not the same as the original design shown here. The way the second bead was hanging is not quite right.

I have a few more details to add to the necklace. Hope you get the idea.

EASY FLOWER CANES

I used to wine about I don't like to make cane. I think it is because I was afraid to make mistake and made some not so perfect cane that I can't stand to look at. This flower cane method is easy (for me) and I get the same result every time. My friend, Jackie, sent me a box of scrap clay. I sort through it and found a small stack of white layers clay between brown clay. I played with it and came up with the idea of using skinner blend log instead of white clay. And here it is.

1. Roll out a sheet of skinner blend. There are many combination you can choose from. Keep one end white and other end dark. For example; white- yellow,-orange, or, white-pink,-red or white-fuchsia-purple. Since the dark color will be in the middle of the cane, make the sheet with more light color than dark. My log is about 1/2" dia. and 6" long.

2. Cover the log with Brown or Black thin sheet of clay

3. Press the log down and even the size. Keep it within 1" wide, until you can put it through the pasta machine at the thickest setting. (I am using Imperia and it might be a tad bigger than most). Cut in 1/2 and stack on top of each other. Cut into 3" pieces and cut in 1/2 lengthwise.

4. Roll a tiny snake with Brown clay, fill the gap on the top of each section with it (see the picture). This will help round up the top of the petals.

5. Squeeze the other end together, then start to put each petal section together. Fill the gap of each section with a tiny snake clay like before.

6. Stack the petal sections into a round, donut shape, fill the middle with some left over cane. I like the simple jelly roll with lots of color. Gently squeeze the flower cane so all the sections came together. That's all. Now you have a cute and easy flower cane.

I used these canes for many different way and I will show you how to use these cane to make cute earrings soon. Thanks for watching. Any question or comments are greatly appreciated.

EASY LEAF CANE
1. make a big sheet of skinner blend from GREEN, YELLOW and WHITE. Rolled it into a bull's eye with the Green inside and white outside.
2. Wrapped it up with a thin sheet of Brown clay. You can use Black if you like. My jelly roll is about 1/2" Dia. x 10" long.
3. Flatten it between your fingers, then pressed it down with the brayer, trying to keep it the width at the same size till it is thin enough to pass through the pasta machine at the thickest setting.
4. Roll it through the pasta machine. You will get a long thin noodle like sheet. Cut in in half or in a manageable size.
5. Cut the noodle into 3" strips, then cut them lengthwise in the middle.
6. Now cut a piece of thin sheet from a brown clay about 1/2"x 3". This will be the stem.
7. Squeezed one end to make a point.
8. Squeezed the open end of the leaf sections, the one that show green clay, leave the other end round as it is.
9. Lay the vein section and one leaf section together, like so.
10. Stack up the other leaf section, overlap each other a little bit.
11. Now be patient and lay the rest of the leaf sections on the other side, try to match them as best as you can.
12. Squeezed the canes lightly but try to retain the shape of the leaf. Reduced as needed. Easy, isn't it.
From the same technique, I will show you how to make cute flower cane with it. Please come back in a couple of days.
What do you think?